How do I increase the render distance?
The camera can only see the geometry that is within a range defined by the clipping distance.

Anything that that closer of further away from that distance range will be ignored.

With the camera object selected, increase its End clipping distance in Properties > Camera settings > Lens:

For 2.79 and earlier versions



For 2.8



To visualize the camera clip distance select the camera and enable Display > Limits.



For 2.8 enable Viewport Display> Limits